1. Field of the Invention
An occupant weight operated chair having a seat and reclinable back wherein the seat and back are interconnected by a flexible transition connection wherein the reclining forces are automatically regulated by the occupant's weight.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chairs have been previously formed and molded having integral seat and back portions interconnected by flexible transition sections wherein such chairs have a degree of flexibility permitting very limited reclining. Chairs of such nature are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,146,028; 3,133,765 and 5,102,196.
It is also known to provide chairs having a reclinable back wherein the seat and back portions are supported and interconnected by pivots and linkages wherein reclining is achieved by forcing the back rearwardly, and with some such chair configurations, integral seat and back portions have been proposed. In this respect, note U.S. Pat. Nos. 868,052; 2,365,200; 3,140,118; 3,874,727; and 4,451,085.
Prior reclinable chair configurations having reclinable backs require that the reclining forces on the back overcome springs, or the like, and the occupant's torso or legs are employed as a weighted leverage to produce the reclining action. In such constructions, the difficulty of reclining the chair, i.e. generating the reclining force, increases the further the chair is reclined, and it is common to employ adjusting apparatus for increasing or decreasing the reclining tension of a chair, such adjusting apparatus changing the tension of a spring, or otherwise modifying the reclining mechanism.
Prior art reclinable chairs do not use the occupant's weight for automatically adjusting the reclining tensions or forces, and, accordingly, prior art chairs of the reclinable type are relatively complicated and expensive, and often require special skills to achieve the desired reclining tension or forces.